The FPÖ is making serious accusations against Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP). “A short fragment of well-known shell companies proves in black and white that Kocher literally overloads shell companies with taxpayers’ money through the AMS, but hardly reclaims anything,” criticized blue social spokeswoman Dagmar Belakowitsch.
The reason for the criticism is a parliamentary question from the PVV. According to Belakowitsch, this showed “how easy it is for front companies in Austria under a black-green federal government to receive funding from the ÖVP-led Ministry of Labour”.
“Where the ÖVP has power, they do what they want”
In principle, according to the blue social spokeswoman, Kocher does not have a high opinion of control, “because his department, which has now become a ‘super ministry’, has had no internal control since 2020”. Thus, the citizen might assume “that the black octopus is diligently doling out money to accomplices with its hand in the taxpayer’s purse.” Belakowitsch added: “Where the ÖVP has power, they do what they want, and that is usually expensive for the republic.”
The Liberals want to hold Minister of Labor Kocher and his top officials accountable at the next meeting of the Committee on Labor and Social Affairs. Belakovich: “It can’t go on like this. Kocher finally has to do his homework and finally free himself from the Kurz-Praetorians.
Court recommends better checks
As early as October, the Court of Audit (RH) recommended in a report better controls on state aid for companies that had to send their employees on short-time work during the corona pandemic in 2020 and 2021. At the time, Kocher could partially understand RH’s criticism that potential misuse of the Covid 19 short-time work aid paid to companies was barely detectable. However, he pointed out that when the pandemic broke out in Austria in March 2020, there was increased time pressure to rescue companies from insolvency and to preserve jobs despite corona-related closures. According to Kocher, discrepancies in the calculation of the aid money had already stopped by June 2020 and all known cases of abuse had been forwarded to the authorities.
RH: “The AMS needs a comparison with the list of front companies”
To prevent abuse, the Court of Audit advised the Ministry to be more transparent in the processing of subsidies, including by accurately recording the duration and size of short-time working and recoveries. Companies should be obliged to inform their employees individually about the number of working hours that the company has given them to the AMS for the settlement of the Covid-19 short-time work scheme. The auditors believe the AMS should also compare the list of front companies before approving a company’s performance.
In 2020, 113,771 companies, mostly small and medium-sized companies, with 1.25 million employees had short-time work. A third of the payments for 2020 went to 712 companies, the Court of Audit notes in its report. The budget spent 7.8 billion euros on short-time work in the reporting period and the costs had risen to 9.2 billion euros by the end of 2021. The use of the services is processed by the AMS.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
